Book LXXXV
Sylla entered Italy at the head of an army, and defeated in a battle Norbanus, the consul, by whom his ambassadors, sent to negotiate a peace, had been maltreated. Having ineffectually tried every means with Lucius Scipio, the other consul, to bring about a peace, he prepared to attack his camp, when the consul’s whole army deserted to Sylla, having been seduced by some soldiers sent out by him. Scipio was set free, when he could have been killed. Cneius Pompeius, the son of Pompeius, who took Asculum, raised an army of volunteers, and went over to Sylla with three legions; also the whole body of the nobility quit the city and joined his camp. Sundry actions in different parts of Italy are recorded in the book.